Job Announcement

Leads employment testing professionals, partnering with departments, to develop and administer relevant, valid testing instruments to meet the succession plans of Fairfax County’s public safety agencies (i.e., police department and fire and rescue department). Works closely with stakeholders to facilitate, design and implement talent assessment and acquisition initiatives. This position requires a high degree of technical expertise, excellent oral and written communication skills, integrity, and creative problem-solving techniques while using sound judgment. Duties include:

• Oversees and manages all aspects of talent acquisition and employment test development and administration;
• Conducts adverse impact and validation studies;
• Creates reports and develop recommendations;
• Collaborates and leads cross departmental teams of subject matter experts; provides direction as needed on promotional examination activities, solves execution problems and removes obstacles, with overall responsibility of examination development and administration;
• Attends grievance meetings with departmental staff;
• Leads and provides coaching to a team of talent acquisition professionals in the division;
• Ensures quality control in all aspects of testing;
• Manages, develops, and conducts assessment center orientations and post-test review sessions;
• Stays abreast of the latest research and trends to provide expert guidance and to ensure alignment with best practices;
• Identifies process inefficiencies and makes recommendations for process redesign to create a more streamlined practice and deliver high quality results;
• Develops and maintains recruitment and examination metrics;
• Partners and collaborates with department staff to gain full understanding of business objectives, hiring needs, and position responsibilities;
• Assists with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests;
• Assists in managing and overseeing the day-to-day operations of the employment division;
• Ensures compliance with state, local and federal laws and regulations.

Note: The specialized areas of the position are talent acquisition and employment test development and administration .

Illustrative Duties

(The illustrative duties listed in this specification are representative of the class but are not an all-inclusive list. A complete list of position duties and unique physical requirements can be found in the position job description.)

• Expand, revise, and enhance County Human Resources systems, programs, and products consistent with County, State and Federal laws and regulations;
  
• Provide consulting support to multiple business partners to proactively and creatively resolve complex Human Resources issues;
  
• Lead cross-agency change initiatives throughout to improve services and meet the needs of the client agencies;
  
• Collaborate with senior executives to design, develop, implement, and evaluate new human resource policies and procedures; Lead cross-functional project teams;
  
• Manage projects from conception through implementation using accepted project management techniques;
  
• Manage the procurement process for securing Human Resources consultant support, including drafting statements of work/requests for bid, evaluating proposals, selecting a contractor, and managing projects;
  
• Apply systems solutions to business problems; trains users in system functions;
  
• Serve as the subject-matter expert on Human Resources trends, legislation, policy and programs;
  
• Lead complex Human Resources studies with County-wide impact or of diverse, complex organizational structures and/or functions;
  
• Design and lead benchmarking studies to assess County Human Resources programs and policies;
  
• May supervise the work of professional or administrative staff.
  
• Performs and manages highly complex work designing, developing, and maintaining county-wide eLearning courses to meet on-demand training requirements. Develops requirements for new information technology solutions and support agency and countywide information technology projects.
  
• Partners across the county to gather training requirements.

Required Knowledge Skills and Abilities

(The knowledge, skills and abilities listed in this specification are representative of the class but are not an all-inclusive list.)

• Extensive knowledge of the principles and practices of public sector human resources administration in relevant areas;
• Extensive knowledge of human resources theories, practices and concepts;
• Advanced knowledge of Federal, State and County laws, ordinances, rules and regulations pertaining to all aspects of human resource management;
• Knowledge of the principles, theories, and practices of Human Resources development, including group dynamics, teaming and problem solving;
• Knowledge of facilitation and presentation techniques;
• Knowledge of project planning and project management techniques;
• Ability to provide human resource consulting services in relevant areas;
• Ability to gather, analyze, synthesize, and present facts, findings and recommendations;
• Ability to establish and maintain effective relationships with citizens, employees and public officials;
• Ability to develop recommendations, reports, studies and presentations;
• Ability to guide, lead or supervise professional or administrative staff;
• Highly developed skills in collaboration;
• Highly developed skills in or al and written communication.

Employment Standards

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:
Any combination of education, experience, and training equivalent to the following:
(Click on the aforementioned link to learn how Fairfax County interprets equivalencies for "Any combination, experience, and training equivalent to")
Graduation from an accredited four-year college or university with a bachelor's degree in human resource management, public administration, or a related field plus four years of professional-level human resources experience including one year of specialized experience as a senior analyst within the specialized area.

CERTIFICATES AND LICENSES REQUIRED:
Not applicable.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Master's degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology;
• Four years of experience overseeing high stakes testing development and administration, ideally for public safety agencies;
• Experience working with senior leadership and county attorneys;
• Strong problem-solving and decision-making, and the ability to support decisions;
• Knowledge of the statistical approaches and methods used for assessment validation;
• Experience interpreting and explaining validation results to a non-technical audience;
• Experience in conducting selection system design and validation;
• Experience with conducting job analyses to establish criteria for classification and selection;
• Experience supervising professional staff;
• Strong interviewing and assessment skills;
• Strong interpersonal skills;
• Solid ability to analyze data, solve problems and provide recommendations.

NECESSARY SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS:

• All newly hired employees are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 (two weeks after the last required dose) as a condition of employment or obtain approval of a medical or religious exemption prior to their start date. Proof of an exemption or vaccination status will be required during the pre-employment onboarding process. New employees who obtain an exemption from the vaccine mandate for medical or sincerely held religious beliefs may be subject to a weekly testing requirement. Vaccinated employees and employees with a medical or religious exemption will complete the attestation online on their first day of employment or shortly thereafter.
• The appointee to the position must satisfactorily complete a criminal background check.
• Additional work time including weekends and evenings as needed.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS:
Work is performed in an office with low to moderate noise. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms; and talk or hear. The position is primarily sedentary. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus. Ability to traverse to multiple sites for exam committee meetings and administration of exams. All duties performed with or without reasonable accommodations.

SELECTION PRODCEDURE:
Panel interview and may include a presentation, analytical, or written exercise.

The population of Fairfax County is very diverse where 39.8% of residents speak a language other than English at home (Spanish, Asian/Pacific Islander, Indo-European, and others) and we encourage candidates bilingual in English and a foreign language to apply to this opportunity.

Fairfax County Government prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, age, marital status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetics, political affiliation, or military status in the recruitment, selection, and hiring of its workforce.

Reasonable accommodations are available to persons with disabilities during application and/or interview processes per the Americans with Disabilities Act. Contact 703-324-4900 for assistance. TTY 703-222-7314. EEO/AA/TTY.